There's Something about Josh Washington
by Spongecatdog
Summary: Something was definitely strange with Josh lately, and Chris couldn't figure out just what it was. To make things even worse, everyone else seemed to know what was happening except for Chris. Which was why Chris was now documenting all of the strangest instances with Josh in his (totally manly) journal.


**A/N: jaqkal jhdsmerfksemrKJWEKRJWR HAPPY BIRTHDAY darkwhispersoftheworld (found at darkwhispersoftheworld . tumblr. com btw~). Total sweetheart with A+ prompts.**

* * *

There was something strange going on with Josh lately.

Chris swore he could feel it in his bones. Fortunately, it didn't seem like a bad something wrong just a strange something wrong. Chris had a pretty good idea of what Josh looked like when a bad something wrong was happening. He had, after all, gotten a very good visual of what that looked like while they were waiting for Hannah and Beth to return from the woods. Luckily, Chris hadn't seen it that well as the two sisters had returned not longer after they left with stories of a strange man with a flamethrower chasing them through the woods. Neither were really sure when they were turned around in the forest and back towards the cabin, but somehow the stranger had managed to chase them back towards the front door.

Chris still remembers the look of relief on Josh's face when his sisters came flying through the front door. The three disappeared into Hannah's room for the night and weren't seen until the afternoon of the next day. Tensions were high with the rest of the group but even a stranger could tell that everyone was just glad Hannah and Beth were safe. Hell, Emily said something along the lines of I'm sorry (if the words "Yeah, well, maybe the prank was a _little_ overboard. You didn't have to go outside during a _freezing cold blizzard_ in order to get over it though!" meant sorry, of course.)

That being said, Chris knew what Josh acted like when something bad was happening with him.

And whatever was going on with him now was _definitely_ not that kind of something.

Every time Josh and Chris got together, Josh kept hinting at weird things and sending Chris meaningful glances at random times during their conversations like Chris was supposed to be taking more out of what they were saying then he was. Josh was also spending an odd amount of time staring at Chris, making Chris believe he had something on his face on more than one occasion. Not to mention, there was this one really strange time where Josh walked up behind Chris and gave him a light slap on his butt and then just continued walking past Chris with not even a 'no homo'.

So yeah, there was totally something strange with Josh Washington.

To make things worse, every time Chris tried to bring it up with one of his friends, they would always give him this weird _look_ like they already understood something he didn't! The fact everyone else seemed to be clued in on something about Josh that he didn't know didn't help either. Josh and him were the best of bros! Always were and always will be! So why wouldn't Josh just tell him what was up?!

So as any normal almost legal man would do, Chris decided to write down some of his majorly weird experiences with Josh in a totally manly journal that wasn't a diary in any way despite the rhinestones across the front and the glitter covering every single page in it (Chris had even checked). It wasn't Chris's fault that apparently stores didn't sell cool journals anymore, and, well, it was only two dollars for the thing.

Chris chewed on his lip before opening the page and writing his first notably strange experience with Josh.

* * *

 **THE RECORDS OF MANY STRANGE EVENTS WITH JOSH WASHINGTON**

 **1.**

The first time Chris noticed something was off wasn't nearly as bad as some of the other times, but it was something that should have tipped him off if he was honest.

Really, Chris should have noticed Josh staring at him long before he actually did. To be fair, he had noticed Josh's side glances towards him while they were playing video games, but Chris had attributed that to Josh simply trying to find ways to see what Chris was going to do next. Not that Josh really needed to do that in the first place as Chris was absolutely dreadful at tricking people in real life let alone in the game. It was nice to imagine that Josh thought Chris was tough enough of an opponent that he had to constantly glance to his left where Chris sat.

Of course, that idea was always gets crushed when Josh's character totally destroys Chris's poor character.

After the fifth consecutive time of being killed in horrible ways via video game, Chris huffed and flopped backwards onto the floor. He heard Josh snort loudly in response before he heard the tell-tale sound of the game being paused., and suddenly another body joined him on the ground. Josh sent Chris a wry smile, causing Chris to huff and roll away. Before he could get far, two strong arms wrapped around him, trapping Chris there. Chris rolled his eyes and let out a dramatic sigh. Josh's hot breath against the back of his neck, making him shiver in response. Chris felt the other talk before he heard the words.

"What? Did you get tired of getting pounded into the ground by me?"

Chris rolled his eyes again and tried to wiggle out of Josh's grip once more. He totally got out of Josh's arms through his own brute strength. Josh had obviously just loosened his arms enough for Chris to easily slip away, because he was afraid his arms would be broke as Chris wrestled his way out.

Obviously.

"I was not _that_ bad! I even landed a few hits on you if I remember!"

Like, twelve hits on Josh's character compared to the thousands of blows landed on his own character.

Josh sat back up and snorted. He raised his arms in a mock surrender.

"Oh, you're right. How could I deny _the_ Royal Assassin his throne of skulls taken from his very own kills? Please spare me, Mr. Super Killer, sir!"

Josh had managed to keep a straight face until he had hit the end of his sentence, at which point he promptly lost his shit and began laughing loudly. Chris huffed again and stood up with a totally manly pout on his lips. He passed Josh, lightly tugging the the back of Josh's shirt as he walked by. The other fell while still laughing, only beginning to sober up when Chris came back from the bathroom in pajamas. Josh raised his eyebrows as he watched Chris make his way towards the bed.

"What are you doing?"

Chris sent Josh a confused look.

"Dude, it's almost 3 on a school night. I'm going to bed."

Not even a beat later, Josh piped in with a shit eating grin on his face.

"With me?"

Chris froze as the words processed in his mind. He turned back to Josh with a confused expression.

"Well, I mean, if you want. We haven't done that since way back though."

Josh snorted and went back to playing the game still on screen. He continued amusing himself for several minutes by repeatedly killing Chris's character before turning in himself. Chris was already half-asleep when he felt Josh shuffling around behind him. By the time warm arms wrapped around Chris, he was asleep.

 **2.**

The second strange experience with Josh wasn't nearly as bad as the first one, but it definitely rose just as many red flags in Chris's mind whenever he thought about it.

It was simple, really. They were just walking together, joking around about stupid stuff like who was the hottest guy in the Left 4 Dead series. No way something weird could come out of it, right?

Not so much as you might think.

Chris rolled his eyes and began to aggressively flail his arms around in hopes that maybe the exaggerated movements would help to convey his point.

"C'mon, man! Nick is definitely way hotter! I mean, have you seen that man's class?! Not to mention the whole 'I totally don't care about anyone else'' thing he's got goin' on! Totally adds to the hotness."

Chris let his arms fall back to his sides as if the argument had already been won. Because really, how did Josh think that Ellis was better than Nick. Sure, he had the whole Southern thing going for him, but he seemed to be completely oblivious to half of the stuff that was happening around him! Chris could never imagine being that unaware of the situation. Josh nodded his head as though conceding some before a large grin split across his face.

"No, wait, I've got someone way hotter than Nick."

Josh raised his finger in the air and paused for a second for dramatic effect.

"The Boomers.."

There was a moment of silence before both boys lost it. Howls of laughter poured out of them that were so loud that several dogs barked at them in response. Chris had to hold onto Josh in order to keep his balance and not fall on his face from how hard he was laughing. After the chuckles had finally subsided, Chris pulled his hand away and wiped a fake tear away from underneath his eye. He snorted once more before rolling his eyes.

"Shit, Josh, I think you've wo-"

A (very manly, mind you) shriek cut off the rest of Chris's sentence as the cement on the ground suddenly came up to high five his face. Later on when Chris's feet were firmly back on the ground, the realization that the noise had come from his mouth and not someone else's would hit him but for now he was focusing on the fact that his face was not in fact kissing the ground but instead being held against something very warm and very solid. The something vibrated against Chris's face as chuckles were heard.

"Chris, you have to tie your shoes. Don't want you falling for anybody else after all."

Chris felt a distinct warmth begin to build on his cheeks as he shoved Josh away. Josh stumbled slightly but remained upright even though he looked ready to fall over any minute from how hard he was laughing. Chris huffed and took off his glasses to clean them. Chris made a face at the amount of dirt clinging to the lenses and looked up to raise an eyebrow at Josh.

"Dude, seriously, how often do you clean your shirt, because this is crazy."

Josh paused and sniffed his shirt. The face the Josh made was all Chris really needed to know.

 **3.**

The third time was when things began to really take a turn. Chris could have wrote off the earlier instances as Josh's normal behavior. When Chris really thought about it, the way Josh acted wasn't exactly new. In fact, the other used to act the exact same way in fourth grade when he met Jenny Hendricks. Well, not the _exact_ same way. Small children tended to not to jokingly invite others into their bed. The cooties were too strong for any of those ideas. Although now that Chris thought of it, Josh seemed almost convinced that Chris had caught cooties when they were younger due to the fact Josh claimed that his stomach did weird things whenever he looked at Chris. It turned out that Josh had simply gotten food poisoning though, and the subject was left behind.

But if Chris had to point out a specific time he knew something strange was happening with Josh, it would definitely be the time they were chilling out in Chris's room, half talking and half lazily staring at the wall.

Chris stared blankly at the wall in front of him, idly jumping from different topic to topic in his mind. If one of the topics was deemed worthy enough, Chris would bring it up with Josh. They would talk about whatever it was until the idea died out, and they were left staring at the walls in silence once more. Despite how it might have sounded, it wasn't a boring process at all. Chris doubted anything could be boring with Josh though. Chris's eyes squinted as he stared at the wall with renewed intensity.

"You know what that patch of wall needs?"

Chris didn't even wait for a response or even for Josh to move in acknowledgement. There wasn't really a point to wait. He knew Josh well enough by now to know Josh was listening despite the way the other seemed to be lazily staring at Chris's closet.

"It needs a picture. But of what?"

Chris pulled himself up with an inquisitive look on his face before a wide smile appeared.

"Aha! Obviously only the great Corvo Attano is worthy enough to have that specific spot on my wall. Remind me to find a poster of him and nail it to the wall sometime."

Josh snorted and rolled his eyes. A smile began to make its way on Josh's face as his eyes ran up and down the length of Chris's body. Unintentional words slipped out from his lips. The only evidence of his words being accidental was the brief shocked expression of shock on Josh's face that was quickly overtaken with a cocky smile.

"I know what _I'd_ like to nail to the wall."

Chris froze with the smile still on his face despite the growing panic in his eyes. He let loose a nervous chuckle and put up in hands in a show of fake submission as he watched Josh warily.

"Woah there, Jigsaw! I would really prefer not to be the star of the fiftieth Saw movie, thank you very much."

Josh shrugged nonchalantly and continued talking as if he was actually disappointed Chris couldn't be a victim of some gruesome torture.

"Darn .And I was looking for a super cool guy to play as the lead too..."

Chris snorted despite the uneasy feeling building up in the pit of his stomach.

 **4.**

The fourth time was when Josh and Chris were having what was dubbed as a 'Bro-Over' when the two had been 'too cool' to have a sleep over. Even when the two grew older and (slightly) more mature, the name stuck. It was kind of like that piece of old gum on the bottom of your shoe you want off but have also slowly grown to love it enough that you wouldn't intentionally clean it off. Not the prettiest metaphor, but it fit surprisingly accurately.

The night had started just as it always had: junk food and games.

Unfortunately, it seemed like two teenage boys were able to eat through an entire cupboard of food while still wanting more grease. Josh managed to scrounge up enough money to pay for half of the cost, hunting down every last penny needed in his couch. Chris cast his five bucks a forlorn look. His stomach growled, firmly reminding him that food was an absolute necessary and that there was really no need to save up for another Call of Duty game when they were all the same. Chris still winced every time he thought about the shiny, new cover and firmly shoved down everything but the want for extremely greasy foods.

Josh eyed Chris strangely as the other wiped a fake tear away and internally began the money's eulogy speech. He shook his head and continued dialing the number for the nearest pizza joint. An idea seemed to hit him right as the person on the other end picked up. Josh's eyes remained on Chris as he spoke. Chris, who had just finished his very touching and emotional internal speech for the dearly departed money, noticed Josh staring at him and raised his eyebrows. As if waiting for Chris to look up, Josh smiled widely and practically purred into the phone.

"Yeah, I would _definitely_ like some beef with that pizza."

If Josh's tone wasn't enough to tip Chris off to a joke being made, then the way Josh's eyes trailed up and down Chris's body did. The way Josh did it was hilariously theatrical and yet seductive at the same time. Not that Chris was seduced or anything! Haha, no way! Besides, even if Chris may or may not have liked it if Josh meant it, there was no way Josh was serious about the look. The growing smile on Josh's face was enough to tell him that. And yet, Chris couldn't help but feel somewhat scandalized by the entire experience.

If the pizza boy's face was anything to go by, then 'Glenn' was feeling the sense of scandalization as well. Chris slipped the boy an extra few dollars because even Call of Duty could wait a little longer if it helped Glenn not looked like he was waiting for Josh or Chris to drag him inside the house like the start of a really shitty porno. Chris would have patted Glenn on the back if the other didn't look like he was about to take off from the front doorstep like a rabbit escaping the jaws of a wolf. He was pretty sure he had never seen someone look so happy to get inside of a car when Glenn finally escaped to it.

 **5.**

The fifth time had to have been the biggest in Chris's memory. There were a few others, but this time definitely trumped the others by far. It was at another Bro-Over, which seemed to spawn a lot of these moments now that Chris thought about it. That wasn't the point though. The point was that this singular moment was the cause of Chris sitting down and recording all of the strangest moments with Josh. It was literally that big of an event.

Josh dropped a pillow on the ground on flopped down on in dramatically with a wide grin on his face. Chris blinked and rose an eyebrow at the other, knowing from Josh's smile that whatever the other was planning wasn't going to end well. After a straight minute of silence and Josh obviously wanting Chris to ask _what on Earth Josh was doing,_ Chris sighed and conceded.

"What is it, Josh?"

Josh's eyes lit up in excitement, obviously pleased that Chris had given in and decided to play along.

"I'm glad you asked, cochise! You see, I've been thinking about all of these Bro-Overs we have had, and I noticed something. We have _never_ talked about the people we like. I for one think that is quite sad. How could we have been breaking one of the ancient rules of sleeping at another person's house for all these years! It has to be fixed, Chris. We might anger the ancient Bro Gods if we don't."

Josh's words took on a more serious hue as he ended his long speech even as his eyes continued to twinkle in amusement. Chris deadpanned and stared at Josh dryly. Josh lightly punched him before continuing.

"As the brilliant person who realized this, I demand you go first lest the Bro Gods strike you down! ...For your safety, of course."

Chris stared at Josh as if waiting for the other to give up on talking about crushes. When it became obvious that there was going to be no way Josh was going to forget about the whole thing, Chris huffed.

"But Josh-"

Josh held up a finger, stopping Chris's words.

"No buts. Unless it's a butt you wanna tap. Then by all means, proceed with the butts."

Chris rolled his eyes, but a smile still managed to worm its way onto his face at Josh's stupid joke. He breathed deeply and began.

"Well, you already know who it is, but they're really pretty and smart. Definitely someone I can depend on in a time of need, you know? Um… Totally nice. The, uh... kind of person you would want to bring home to your parents?"

Josh's excitement began to slowly bleed out of his eyes until only a light irritation was left.

"C'mon, Chris! Give me something juicy! Here, let me show you how it's done."

Josh breathed deeply and for a split second Chris swore he saw a flash of hesitancy. If the hesitance was there, it was gone as soon as it appeared, and a look of self-suredness had replaced it.

"They're an absolute dork, and somehow they make even that cute. They're always joking, and the sun is probably jealous of how bright the room gets whenever they smile… And you would think their obliviousness to everything would be annoying, but it's not… It's almost endearing how unaware they are of the situation despite how obvious I can be while I'm around them. I just can't help it though. I just look at their face, and it always hits me just how much I really want to be with them. Just the thought that I'm around them so often is what keeps me going despite all the crap I deal with on a daily basis. And... _God_ , Chris, I've got it bad."

Chris couldn't even speak at first. He just stared at Josh in complete awe as his mind kept replaying Josh's words over and over again. Chris opened his mouth to speak, closed it, and croaked out a response.

"Josh, man, I never knew you liked Sam that much. Why didn't you tell me? I could've totally helped hook you up with her."

Emotions flew so quickly across Josh's face that Chris could barely decipher half of them. The ones he did manage to see were panic, confusion, something that looked eerily akin to despair before tired amusement stayed. Chris immediately wanted the bright, _loving_ look Josh had when he was talking about his crush (no, _Sam_ ) back on the other's face. There was a small bud of unhappiness and jealously that tried to grow in Chris's heart when he remembered that soft look was for Sam and Sam alone, but he quickly smashed the feeling before it could get any bigger. Chris had no idea where the cold feeling in the pit of his stomach had come from or even why but like heck Chris was going to let it spawn into something greedy that would just hurt him and Josh in the end. So Chris forced the smile back on his face (when had it fallen?) and waited for Josh to reply. Josh coughed and smiled.

"Ah, well, y'know. I'm your wingman! I couldn't let you steal my winging job! That's the only thing I have to do on the weekends aside from being a pricey hooker!"

Chris snorted and lightly punched Josh's shoulder. Josh grinned and pushed back, and soon the two were involved in the biggest battle of the century. Soda bottles were thrown, and many chip soldiers were lost in the war. It was only after the last of the Doritos were crushed to pieces that they stopped to mourn the loss of the crunchy chips. They cleaned and vowed to defeat each other in Call of Duty (for the Doritos!)

Neither talked about how fake Josh's smile had been when he had spoke earlier about liking Sam.

(Chris isn't even sure he would ever want to talk about it.)

* * *

Chris sat back and looked over his journal once more, eyeing the pages full of his experiences with Josh. It seemed like writing down all of the things that had happened had only intensified Chris's belief that something strange was definitely happening with Josh. He even had solid, physical proof that he wasn't imagining things! That brought up the question of who to tell that would believe him and the totally solid information he had.

Chris was Skype calling Sam before his mind even registered what he was doing.

Sam answered surprisingly quickly and seemed a little out of breath, but Chris cut her off before she could even speak.

"Sam! I told you something was up with Josh! I've even got physical, written proof that shows it!"

Chris shoved the journal he had used to write towards the camera without thinking. It wasn't until he heard Sam's dry cough and noticed her raised eyebrow that Chris remembered about the unmanly cover of the journal and jerked it away from the computer's camera. Chris coughed lightly and tried to ignore the way his cheeks felt like they were on fire. He flicked to the first page, eager to move on from the embarrassment.

"Anyways, you've gotta read this, Sam! Its total evidence! I swear!"

Sam looked liked she was trying to decide between laughing and sighing. She seemed to choose sighing and look at Chris with a wry look.

"You know I can't exactly read your handwriting through the computer, right? Why didn't you just write it online anyways? That seems like it would have been a lot easier to do although that means I would have missed your absolutely adorable diary." Sam paused and hummed. "Maybe it _is_ a good thing you didn't. I never knew you liked cats, Chris."

Chris blinked as cold realization hit him. Why hadn't he thought of just typing it all up and sending it to Sam via email? Oh, that's right. He had to be the cool kid who wrote it all down. Chris huffed.

"Alright, alright. Totally funny, I know. Just give me a minute to take pictures and send them to you."

Chris could faintly hear Sam's laughter in the background. He snapped pictures of each page, making sure that everything was legible and sending an email when he was finished. Sam seemed to have taken pity on him when he had returned as no more comments on his "absolutely adorable diary" was made. Instead, she became more serious as she scanned over the pictures Chris had sent with surprising scrutiny. She seemed to pause for a minute and began to bite her lip. Her eyes darted up from her screen to meet Chris's eyes.

"Are you sure it's okay for me to read this? These seem.. kind of personal."

Chris's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. What did Sam mean by personal? It wasn't like Chris had sent her detailed paragraphs of how he dealt with stuff.

"Yeah. Its cool."

Sam nodded her head slowly, keeping her eyes on Chris. She paused for a moment as if to wait for Chris to suddenly change his mind about letting her read. When there were no objections from Chris, her eyes flitted back to where she must have had the emails open. Silence reigned for several more minutes, only broken by the occasional giggle from Sam. Finally, Sam sat back in her seat and watched Chris in silence. Chris shuffled slightly in his chair before speaking up.

"Do you see what I mean? Totally weird, right? I think we need to talk to Josh, because there's obviously something up with him… I'm worried, Sam."

Sam nodded her head, but she didn't seem to be paying much attention to anything outside of her own thoughts. She seemed to have decided on something as her eyes turned to steel.

"Chris. Let me ask you this first before I say anything. How do you feel about Josh?"

Chris blinked. That wasn't what Chris was expecting at all. He was expecting Sam to jump up and demand to go hunt down Josh and help fix whatever was wrong. But this… What did she even mean? They were the best of bros… Chris could almost say that he would die for Josh if it ever came to that; the only reason the 'almost' was in there was due to the fact Chris never hoped he had to test whether or not he really would die for Josh. Josh and Chris had been best friends since third grade. They had met because of a simple rearrangement of seats, but the simple change that had happened that day had begun something lasting and beautiful.

 _("Boom! Butterfly effect!")_

...But how did Chris _feel_ about Josh? Well… Chris felt many different things about Josh. He felt worry for the other when he didn't answer back after a while, felt happiness whenever he cracked a shitty joke that no one should get away with but somehow Josh does, felt a strangely warm flutter in his chest if Chris looked, _really_ looked at Josh for too long. What did any of it mean though? Chris bit his lip and shook his head. This wasn't the time for a stupid internal crisis over how he felt over Josh. Chris had to make sure that Josh was safe, no matter what.

"I would do anything for him. Why?"

Sam watched him with startling intensity before finding whatever it was she was looking for in his eyes and continuing.

"Chris. I want you to stop and think about how Josh is acting. _Really_ think about it."

Chris resisted the urge to groan in annoyance. Sam was just trying to help, and Chris knew that. The thing was that Chris _had been_ thinking about it all. He kept trying to go through all of the times Chris had with Josh, both written and unwritten in an attempt to find out what was making Josh act the way he was. Chris ran over everything in his head once more if only to make Sam happy. When he came up with nothing, Chris sighed.

"I can't figure it out, Sam. I feel like it's right there in front of me, and I'm just not getting it."

Sam gave him an exasperated look. She rolled her eyes at Chris's blank stare.

"What I'm trying to get to here is that I think Josh might have a crush on you."

Sam looked liked she had just said the understatement of the century, but Chris wasn't paying attention to that. He was too busy trying to figure out why on Earth Sam seemed to believe Josh had a crush on _him_ of all people. Chris shook his head.

"Sam, you've read all of the pictures I sent you, right? That last one… What Josh said was totally about you. Besides, Josh has always been straight for as long as I can remember!"

While Josh wasn't the most hetero of people, he definitely had never really seemed to like men in that way. Yeah, sure, there were those times when Josh got really close to him during movie nights or gave him a massage whenever life became too stressful, but all bros did that. Right?

"Chris, are you _really_ -"

Before Sam could continue, a loud, irritated groan was heard. Chris blinked at the sound. Despite the panic beginning to grow on Sam's face, the groan had _definitely_ not come from her. There were brief noises of a squabble on the other side of the Skype call and then the tell-tale sound of a laptop being shifted. Chris watched in silent confusion until he saw the person now in front of the camera and a cold feeling of dread settled itself in his stomach. Staring at him from the other side of the call was Emily herself.

There was a brief moment of absolute terror in which Chris realized that _he was pouring his heart out when fucking Emily was right there_ , and it took all of Chris's might not to end the call right then and there. Admittedly, Emily's disdainful look when Chris's fingers twitched towards the mouse as if she knew exactly what he was hoping to do helped him refrain too. Emily cut Chris off before he could even respond.

"Listen here, Geekzilla. I'm going to cut this short and simple because unlike _someone_ Sam and I have better things to do with our lives than listen to some overgrown manchild whine all day."

Chris could hear Sam talking in the background and trying to get Emily to tone down her...well, _Emilyness_. Emily waved her off and continued talking.

"Let me put it in terms that even _you_ will be able to understand. Has he ever said no homo in any of these moments you've had together? _At all?_ "

Chris blinked. His features settled into a neutral calm, but Chris's mind was anything but calm. He ran through his memories of all the Bro-Overs he and Josh had ever had, the movie nights, and even the time they kissed each other as younger boys due to the fact they wanted to be extra prepared for when they kissed their first girlfriend. Chris abruptly remembered the fact that Josh had the biggest crush on Jenny Hendricks in fourth grade, and that was the cause for many of his strange behavior shifts.

Emily sat back in the seat with a smug smile on her face that quickly soured when Chris remained silent.

"Well? Get your gay ass out there and confront him or whatever. I'm tired of seeing you two awkwardly dance around each other." Emily's hand moved to end the Skype call before she paused. Her voice was filled with deadly ice when she spoke.

"And if you _dare_ bother Sam or I again with this idiocy again today, I will personally rip off your balls and shove them down your throat."

The Skype call ended sharply, leaving Chris alone with his mind.

Chris felt like he had been tossed into a whirlwind. He didn't know how long it had been since he had entered the surprised daze, only being pulled out of it by the bright chirp of his phone notifying him of a text. Chris numbly tugged out his phone and flicked it open.

 _From: absolute nerd_

 _Message:_

 _yo. emily just sent me a rly weird text. something about needing to see you? u ok?_

Chris's fingers were flying across his phone before his mind caught up with what he was saying. He clicked the 'Send' button before he could think about what he was doing. Silence filled the room once more for several minutes. Regret was beginning to build in Chris's chest as time seemed to inch by slowly. What if he was wrong? What if by sending that he had scared off Josh? God, Chris wasn't sure what he would do if Josh didn't want to be with him anymore… Another chirp came from Chris's phone, cutting off the rest of Chris's thoughts.

 _From: absolute nerd_

 _Message:_

... _Yeah. I've liked you for a while now. I'm not even sure for how long at this point, to be honest. You don't have to like me back. Hell, you don't even have to see me if it makes you uncomfortable. Just tell me now, and I can split. I understand._

Somehow those simple words seemed to cause sharp pains behind Chris's eyes. He swallowed in an attempt to get rid of the sudden choking feeling in his throat. Chris breathed deeply and thought about his response. He didn't have to think for long though. It was like the answer was always there, always waiting inside of Chris. Chris typed out a response and hit send once more, hoping that this wasn't some sort of crappy prank. The wait began once more, only this time it was ended by a sharp noise at Chris's window rather than a chirp. Chris turned towards his window in confusion and peered out of it, narrowly missing a rock to the face when he opened it. Outside of his window, Josh stood panting with a wide smile on his face. When he saw Chris, his smile grew as a hand raised upwards towards Chris's window.

"Cochise! You're not fucking with me, are you?"

A smile grew unbidden on Chris's face. He yelled back down at Josh.

"Only if you aren't!"

Josh laughed, and Chris isn't sure if he has ever seen Josh that happy in a long time. Josh's eyes trailed towards the paneling on Chris's wall as a bright light shone in his eyes.

"If only I had paid more attention in climbing class. Then maybe I could be up there already."

Chris snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Or you could just use the front door."

Josh nodded with a wide grin on his face.

"Or I could just use the front door."


End file.
